Of Brothers and Best Friends
by ElementalFire804
Summary: Fluffy little oneshots and short stories of Gray and Lyon being adorable in both cannon and AUs. (Sibling!Lyoray only)
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, so I've wanted to start a group of oneshots for awhile, but I couldn't find any fandoms that I really had that much inspiration for. BUT NOW IVE FINALLY FOUND IT. I've found that I always have inspiration for Lyoray sibling fluff, so I thought "why not?" And here it is. I've already written a few more of these and have ideas for others (all varying in size because I just write what I write and sometimes it's short and sometimes it's not), and most of them are AUs because I like AUs better, but some are cannon, so do not fear! I'll try to post every Saturday, but if I don't, it's probably because I don't haven't had time to write more (high school's a bitch), but I'm not going to drop this story or anything like that until I've decided it's finished, but it should have plenty of chapters by then.**

 **IMPORTANT: So I have not finished Fairy Tail, and would appreciate if no one spoiled anything in the comments. I'll make sure to put in the author's notes if there are any spoilers, but for the most part, there shouldn't be any except for Ur, which you should know if you know Lyon, but I'll still put a disclaimer anyway, just to be safe. Anyways, sorry for the super long author's not, now on with the story!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any of its characters.**

 **Boo-Boos, Bruises, and Brave Big Brothers (Oneshot):**

 **Gray – 6 (Kindergarten)**

 **Lyon – 8 (2nd Grade)**

Lyon laughed at the joke that had just been told. He was finally going to make some friends, and with the coolest kids in his class none-the-less.

"Lee!"

The second-grader rolled his eyes. What did his annoying younger brother want this time? He turned around, ready to tell Gray to get lost, he would ruin his chances of becoming friends with these kids, but when he saw the tears running down the younger boy's face, his aggravation disappeared and was replaced with worry.

The kindergartner crashed into his big brother, wrapping his arms around his waist and burying his face into his stomach. Lyon rubbed the younger child's back, trying to calm him down.

"What's the matter, Gray?"

Gray just continued to cry, ignoring Lyon's question. The other boys that Lyon had previously been talking to had left, but Lyon didn't notice, nor did he care. His attention was now solely focused on the blubbering boy latched onto his torso.

Lyon pried the other boy's arms from around his waist and crouched down to his level. Gray looked towards the ground, using his hands to wipe the tears from his cheeks.

"Can you tell me what's wrong?" Lyon asked gently, lifting the younger's chin so that he was looking at him.

"So-ome big ki-ids were bein' m-mean to m-me. I was swi-inging and they s-said I co-uldn't a-and pushed me off my s-swing a-and I scra-aped my arm an' th-they called me a ba-aby 'cuz I was c-cryin', but I couldn' help it, it hurts. I-I tried not ta be a baby, b-but it really hu-urts, Lee," Gray sobbed, cradling his arm close to his chest now that it was not wrapped around Lyon's waist in a death-grip.

"Let me see," Lyon held out his hand so that he could examine Gray's injured arm.

Gray sniffled, slowly extending his arm for Lyon to see. Lyon looked at the large scrape that stretched from his elbow to just below his wrist. It was covered in dirt, and blood was oozing out of it. Lyon's anger flared as he thought about the kids who dared to do this to his little brother, but pushed it aside as he gave Gray his full attention. He would make them pay later.

"Come on, let's get you to the nurse," Lyon said, taking the hand of Gray's uninjured arm and leading him into the school building, after asking the teacher's permission.

Once they'd reached the nurse's office, Lyon explained how Gray had fallen off of his swing, because Gray still had tears streaming down his face and could not speak. The nurse took him over to the sink, rinsing all of the dirt out of his wound before wrapping it up and leading him back to the door where Lyon was waiting. Gray, who had, by then, ceased crying, grasped Lyon's hand tightly and quietly thanked the nurse. The woman smiled kindly and waved to them as they left her office.

By the time they'd left the nurse's, recess was nearly over. When they'd gotten back outside, Lyon led Gray to a patch of grass near the playground equipment, and they both sat down.

After a few moments of silence, Lyon voiced the question he'd been waiting to ask, "Who pushed you?"

Gray looked at Lyon before turning around and pointing to the swing set, where two boys sat. They appeared to be in third or fourth grade, at least a year older than Lyon, but that wasn't going to stop him from going over there and showing them what happened when they messed with his baby brother. He stood, beginning to walk over to the older children when something grabbed his arm. He turned around to see Gray, now on his feet, holding onto his left arm and looking at him curiously.

"Where are you going, Lee?" He asked, head tilted slightly to the right.

"To give them a piece of my mind," Lyon responded, glaring in the boys' direction. What they were doing picking on a kid half their age, Lyon would never understand. But he didn't care, they weren't going to get away with it.

"No! You can't!" Gray protested, "They're real mean, they might hurt you too."

Lyon smiled at the younger boy's concern, "It's okay, Gray. They won't be able to lay a hand on me."

Gray hesitantly released the older boy, but decided to follow him to the swing set.

"Hey!" Lyon shouted, gaining the attention of the two older children, "My brother says you were picking on him."

"So what if we were?" One of the boys stood from his spot, approaching Lyon.

Gray hid behind his older brother, scared of the much bigger boy.

"Then we have a problem, because no one picks on my little brother but me."

The boy chuckled at that, "Oh yeah? And what are you gonna do about it, shrimp?"

The other boy was about a foot taller than Lyon and towered over him, but he was unfazed.

"I'm not scared of you," Lyon said defiantly, narrowing his eyes.

It was then that the kid decided to throw a punch at him, but Lyon was quick enough to duck. He then lunged at the taller boy. Before the boy's friend could come to his aid, a teacher had rushed over and was trying to tear Lyon and the older boy apart.

The way Gray looked at him from that day forward made him feel as if he were the greatest person in the world. He may have gotten a black eye and suspension from school the following day, as well as getting grounded for the next week by his mother. But the way his younger brother looked at him after that day, like he was his hero, made the whole thing worth it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Yay! It's Saturday! I've been waiting for Saturday since last Saturday because, well, I'm a comment whore. Sorry, guess the secret's out. Also, in response to Zunifex's comment about their ages affecting their in-characterness, I do try to keep them as in character as I can, but I also try to make them like normal kids their age (while still taking their situations into account), or their situations are a little different because it's an AU, but even then the OOCness is usually small or understandable because of the situation I put them in. Sometimes I do write them a little OOC, but that's why my sister proof-reads for me, because she usually catches that shit (thank you, sissy-poo), but, if she doesn't, just read it anyway, because... You love me? Just kidding, but if she does miss it, it's usually really small so you will either miss it or ignore it. Anyway, let's move on.**

 **WARNING: So, I'm pretty sure if you're reading this, you already know who Ur is, but just in case you don't, spoilers for Lyon and Gray's past, with her and otherwise. Also, I think Gray was older than this when he originally met Ur, but he's this age now, so if he was older, I guess this is a little less cannon than I thought.**

 **Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Fairy Tail. Like, at all. I wish.**

 **Tattered Old Rags and the Prick of a Needle (Oneshot):**

 **Gray – 7**

 **Lyon – 8**

Lyon was walking around the house, just minding his own business, when he tripped over something. He glanced behind himself in agitation, catching sight of Gray pulling his old blanket across the floor. He should have known, this wasn't the first time the thing had tripped him up.

"Gray, I thought I told you to stop dragging that thing around," Lyon said with exasperation evident in his tone, glaring at the younger boy.

Gray looked down at Lyon, then over to his blanket.

He picked up the multi-colored cloth, apologizing, "Sorry, Lyon. I forgot on accident."

Lyon huffed in annoyance, picking himself up, "Well, could you try not to forget this time."

Gray nodded, walking away with the blanket bundled up in his arms.

Gray had managed to go a full three hours without forgetting what Lyon had told him earlier in the day, but he did, as most young children typically do, eventually forget what had been said to him. Once again, Lyon found himself face first on the floor, Gray's tattered rag being the cause of his suffering. However, this time, there had been a ripping noise to accompany Lyon's tripping.

Lyon turned his head, ready to yell at the younger child for, yet again, forgetting what he had been told, but he held his tongue when he saw Gray staring down at his blanket, looking as though he were on the verge of tears. The cloth had been split in two.

"You-you ripped it," Gray said in a barely audible whisper.

Lyon realized that his foot must have gotten caught in one of the many holes in the thing, so when he fell, he'd accidentally torn it in half.

"Well, darn it, Gray. I told you not to drag it around!" Lyon yelled, slight anger in his voice.

"I-I know. I jus'- I jus' forgot it again."

An idea popped into Lyon's head, and he voiced the thought, "Hey, maybe it's a good thing. You're too old to have that thing anyway."

"I know I'm too old for it, but I don' care! Mommy made this for me and it's the last thing I gots from her, s-so I was go-onna keep it good, but now it's all bro-oken," Gray was crying now, and he threw the blanket on the floor, distraughtly stomping back to his and Lyon's shared room.

Lyon looked down at the two scraps of material, suddenly feeling guilty for accidentally tearing it. He picked up the fabric, another idea in his head as he searched Ur's home for what he would need.

...

Gray sat on his bed, turned away from the door and facing the wall. Tears leaked from his eyes and he quickly wiped them away, only for more to take their place. He knew it was stupid to be so upset over a silly blanket, but Gray didn't think his blanket was very silly, so he cried. He then thought that, since his blanket was decidedly un-silly, he would go and retrieve it.

He walked back to the room in which he'd left his comfort object, but found it was missing. He was puzzled for a moment, before coming to the obvious conclusion that someone must have thrown it away. He ran to every trash can in the house, thoroughly searching through them in search of his beloved blanket, but he did not find it. He sat on the floor of the kitchen, in front of the last bin he had checked, and began to cry for his blanket that was now forever lost.

Ur walked into the room and found Gray, sitting on the floor in front of the trash and bawling his eyes out.

"Gray, what's wrong?" Ur questioned in a worried tone.

Gray turned to the woman and looked up at her with pleading eyes, "Do you know where my blanket is? You didn' throw it 'way, did you?"

Ur thought for a moment before shaking her head, "No, Gray, I can't say that I have seen it. Why would you think someone threw it away?"

"I left it in the other room, and now I can't find it," He whined, wiping away tears.

"I'm sure it'll turn up sooner or later," Ur assured the boy with a kind smile.

Gray nodded, though he wasn't sure he entirely believed her.

"Oh, and Gray, have you or Lyon been in my sewing things? They were a mess, and some needles and thread are missing."

"No," Gray replied. He couldn't answer for Lyon, but he knew he hadn't been in any of Ur's soing stuff, or what ever she called it.

"Are you sure? You boys could get hurt using those things, the needles are sharp," She asked again to be certain.

Gray nodded his head, "I'm sure."

"Okay, I'll keep an eye out for your blanket around the house and let you know if I find it."

Gray nodded, leaving the kitchen to continue the search for his blanket.

When he'd searched the whole house and had still come up empty-handed, he returned back to his bedroom to sulk. His gaze was fixated on the wall once again, tears stinging at the backs of his eyes, when he heard a small knock from the door. It was Lyon.

"What do you want?" Gray said, eyes narrowed at the wall, because he refused to face the other boy.

"I'm sorry about your blanket."

Lyon waited for a reply, but, receiving only silence, he continued, "I tried to fix it."

Gray realized that he must have had it the whole time he was searching. Lyon walked over to Gray and placed the blanket in his lap, "It was the best I could do."

Gray looked down at the object that had been placed before him, examining it. He lifted it up so that he would be able to see it better. The giant tear through the middle had been poorly sewn shut, and the many smaller holes had been crudely fixed. It wasn't the best patch job, but Gray was glad it had been put back together. He faced Lyon.

The white-haired boy looked down sheepishly, "I know it isn't the greatest, and I'm pretty sure some of my blood is on it, but I hope it's okay."

Gray noticed that Lyon's fingertips were covered in bandages, and remembering what Ur had said about sharp needles, he guessed that Lyon wasn't exaggerating about his blood being on the blanket. He stood up from his bed and hugged the slightly taller boy, who soon returned the gesture.

He smiled up at Lyon, "It's great. Thanks."

...

He sat on his bed, looking down at the worn fabric he held in his hands. Maybe it was girly of him to still keep the thing, but he didn't care, it was important to him. It had originally come from his mother, and then it had been given back to him by Lyon, so he thought it was pretty damn reasonable of him to keep it around.

"Gray, come on! Lucy's got a job for us! Let's go!" Natsu called through Gray's home. He wandered into Gray's bedroom.

"Come on we- What's that?" Natsu asked, noticing the blanket he still held in his hands.

Gray quickly shoved it under his pillow. If Natsu found out about that, he would never hear the end of it.

"It's nothing, lava-brains."

"Sure doesn't seem like nothing," Natsu mumbled, but let the subject go upon realizing that he had been insulted.

"Who are you calling lava-brains, ice cube?!"

The arguing went on for a little while longer before Natsu, surprisingly, put an end to it.

"Okay, you comin' or what, 'cuz Erza sent me to get you, and she'll be mad if we don't get back to the guild soon," Natsu shuddered, presumably at the thought of being on the receiving end of Erza's wrath.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm comin'," Gray said, standing up and following Natsu out of the room.

As they left the house and made their way to the guild, Gray thought back to that moment, when he had deemed his blanket lost forever. Lyon had fixed it right up, albeit badly, and given it back to him. He smiled sadly at the thought, because when he thought of it, he remembered how Lyon still hated him for what he'd done all those years ago. But it also gave him hope that, maybe, just maybe, Lyon wouldn't stay that way forever.

 **Oh my god, the cheese. I hope that's what y'all signed up for, because that's what you've gotten. Also, I'm not really sure if Gray has has his own place or what his living situation is, but we're just going to pretend he does for the sake of this oneshot, you can pretend that Gray's just sitting in Lucy's house in her room if you want, but what he'd be doing there, I'll never know. Well, see you next Saturday. (You'll like next week's chapter, I'm sure of it)  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**And I am back! You guys don't even understand how excited I get the closer Saturday becomes, or maybe you do, I don't know. Anywho, this oneshot is probably one of my favorites (my most favorite one currently is a few chapters away yet, but hopefully you'll appreciate it as much as I do). Also, just a side note, I really enjoy writing Gray and Lyon as jerks to each other. Obviously not for the entire story, but Gray and Lyon being jerk-faces is always fun to write, even if the one on the receiving end of their wrath is crying (I mean, sure, it makes me mad when they are meanies, but it's still fun. Does that even make sense? Probably not. Whatever). Okay! Now, without further ado, on with the oneshot!**

 **Thunderstorms (Oneshot):**

 **Gray – 13 (8th Grade)**

 **Lyon – 14 (9th Grade)**

He knew, really, that it was a stupid fear. After all, he was a high-schooler now, far too old to be afraid of something so childish, but he couldn't help it. He knew it was foolish and inane, but thunderstorms scared him.

Whenever it rained he was always set on edge, and as soon as he saw one of those bright flashes of lightning, he felt fear settle in his stomach. But sometimes, the rain isn't even there to warn him, those times are the worst. The times where he is unsuspecting of the brilliant light. The lightning itself, however, is not what terrifies him most, it's what he knows is coming next. He's not sure why the loud rumbling frightens him like it does, but whenever he hears it, his heart rate becomes rapid, and he feels as though he can't breath.

It was good that he lived in a place where there weren't many thunderstorms, but he was prepared for when there was one. Whenever one popped up, seemingly out of no where, he would simply retreat to his bedroom, wrap himself in his blanket, and hide in his closet with his hands pressed tightly against his ears until the storm had passed. They didn't usually last too long, never more than two hours, and his family never bothered him, always busy doing something else, so he figured it was a pretty good system.

But now his parents were out of the house, and it was just him and Gray. Lyon was huddled in his closet, trying to make it through the storm that was currently raging on outside, but it seemed so much louder than any he'd ever experienced before, therefore, it felt so much longer.

"Lyon!"

The shouting of his name caused him to panic. His family never usually bothered him, but he guessed it was different now that no one else was home but him and Gray.

"Mom says we need to stay away from the windows and electronics!" Gray shouted through the house.

Thunder rumbled in the background and Lyon covered his ears, closing his eyes tightly to block out everything until the storm had ended. He heard Gray shout some more, but it was muffled by his hands, and Lyon couldn't quite make out what the other boy had said. Suddenly, the door to his closet swung open, and Gray stood there, looking down at him inquiringly.

"What the heck are you doing in here?" Gray asked, bemusement clear in both his voice and expression.

"I-I-"Lyon uncovered his ears, trying to come up with a believable excuse to tell his brother, but was cut off by another bright flash followed by a low rumbling. This boom of thunder had been the loudest yet, and Lyon jumped, letting out a whimper and quickly covering his ears again.

It was silent except for the pitter-patter of the rain and the pounding of Lyon's rapid heartbeat, until Gray's laughter broke through it.

"Wait, so-so you're tellin' me you're afraid of thunderstorms? This-this is gold! You, big, tough Lyon, are afraid of a little thunder and lightening! Priceless!" Gray cackled, holding his stomach.

"Whatever, just go aw-" Lyon tried to tell Gray to leave, but he was once again cut off by a loud roar of thunder.

He let out a yelp, pressing his hands harder against the sides of his head and mumbling, "J-Just go away."

He could still hear Gray guffawing despite the fact that his hands were pressed tightly to his ears, and he didn't like the sound, "Just leave!"

The storm was growing louder, closer, and the floor grumbled threateningly. Lyon was scared, but he _wouldn't_ cry. Not with Gray there, laughing at him like he was an idiot. He didn't even feel like he was going to cry. Definitely not. His eyes weren't stinging with tears, there must have been something in them. Both of them at the same time. Yeah.

Gray sighed jovially at the end of his laughing fit before saying, "I can't believe you're afraid of freakin' thunderstorms."

"Shut up! I-I can still punch you in-in the face!" Lyon growled. The still-rumbling ground had him on edge, and he thought that the anticipation of the thunder might almost be worse than the actual thing.

"C-can you just le-ave, now? Please? I-I'll just handle it how-how I a-always do."

Lyon looked up at the younger boy from where he was sitting on the carpeted floor of his small closet, hoping that maybe he'd take pity on him and leave him alone to wait out the thunderstorm, without the accompaniment of punctuated chuckles at his expense.

It was completely silent again, the storm outside the only thing that could be heard. He had a feeling Gray might be silently laughing at him. He couldn't know for sure because he didn't _seem_ to be laughing, but Lyon wouldn't put it past him.

Lyon just waited fearfully for the next clap of thunder that was sure to come. And then, when it did come, a surprising jolt in the atmosphere, Lyon found that he had let his guard down, if only slightly. He had been hoping it was over without even realizing it.

His startled cry replaced the silence, and Lyon huddled in the corner of the closet, facing the wall, curled up and trembling like some little kid afraid of the dark. He couldn't believe how pathetic he'd become. And somehow the rain had managed to get inside and on his face, and it trailed from his eyes, making it look like he was crying. But he wasn't. It was just the rain. Lyon didn't cry.

And then, Gray finally spoke, "You always handle it like this?"

Lyon nodded quietly without turning around. He didn't want Gray to mistake the rain for tears, it was something that the boy was likely to confuse it for.

"You just sit in your closet, alone, huddled in a blanket and waiting for it to stop?"

The white-haired boy nodded again. Gray sighed, looking maybe _slightly_ guilty, though Lyon found it hard to tell when he was just peeking at him with one eye, before offering his hand to Lyon. The older boy looked at it, confusion written across his face.

"Come on, get up."

Lyon's eyes widened, and he shook his head furiously, which looked rather ridiculous, considering his hands were still on the sides of his head, and he wasn't looking at Gray.

"Yes, now come on. The thunder isn't as loud in my room," Gray said, hand remaining out-stretched to the other boy.

Lyon hesitantly took it, wondering why the teasing had suddenly stopped. Gray hauled him to his feet, and they both walked to the younger boy's room.

Another rumble of thunder shook the house, "There, see, not as loud."

Lyon had to admit that it was slightly more muffled in this bedroom than it had been in his, but he still covered his ears and had to refrain from letting out another whimper. And he felt much more vulnerable with Gray being able to see him in such a state.

"And look," Gray spoke, moving over to his closet door, "a lot more space than your old set-up."

Gray opened the closet and pushed some clothes aside, "Alright, wait one second, I'll be right back."

The dark-haired boy rushed out of the room. Lyon took this moment to rid his face of any trace of the rain. Stupid rain. He heard Gray rummaging around in the kitchen, and then the sound of beeping, before the boy came running back in. He held a bowl of popcorn, a board game, a flashlight, and two bottles of water.

"Snacks, entertainment, a source of light, and spill-proof beverages," Gray spoke, gesturing with each thing as he described it.

Lyon chuckled at his choice of words, but another boom of thunder shut him up. Gray ushered him to the closet, taking everything in there as well and shutting the door. He turned on the flashlight, layed out the board game, Monopoly, and set down the food and drinks.

"Okay, now we play," Gray said, choosing a piece and placing it on the board.

Lyon chose one as well, still a bit perplexed, and placed it on the "Go" space.

Gray handed Lyon the dice, "You can go first."

Now Lyon was completely nonplussed. He and Gray always fought about who got to go first, in absolutely _anything_.

"What are we doing?" Lyon asked.

"Playing Monopoly…" Gray spoke slowly, as if Lyon were extremely dense.

"I know that! But why are we sitting in a closet?!" He shouted back, getting frustrated.

"Because it muffles the sound of the storm more," the younger boy replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Thunder roared outside, as if to prove Gray's point, causing Lyon to whimper, against his will, he might add. Gray crawled across the floor, plopping himself beside his older brother. He took a glimpse at his face before proposing the question, "Have you been… crying? Are you really that scared?"

Lyon shook his head just as much as he had in the closet when he'd been offered Gray's hand. He knew Gray would think they were tears. Stupid boy and his ignorance.

Gray paused for a moment before concluding, with a small smile, "Ahh, it must have just been the rain then, huh?"

Well, at least he wasn't completely incompetent.

"Let's play, it might take your mind off the storm," Gray spoke gently.

Lyon slowly nodded, removing his hands from his head and rolling the dice, moving his piece the correct amount of spaces. And that was how their mother found them, squished together on one side of Gray's closet, half-asleep, and trying to finish their seemingly endless game of Monopoly.

 **Did you like? No? Well, okay then, you didn't have to be so rude about. But, in all seriousness, thank you to every one who reads or reviews or any of that jazz, it is greatly appreciated. See you next week, my lovelies!**


	4. Chapter 4

**So, don't really have much to say before this chapter, except to thank everyone who favs/follows/reviews or just reads, I really do appreciate all of you, so thank you, you lovely people you. So, without further ado, on with the next chapter of "Of Brothers and Best Friends".**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any of its characters, if I did ErLu would so be cannon (sorry, it cute, but completely unrelated to these stories, so if you don't ship it, have no fear!)**

 **Of Disapproving Parents and Nights Spent Over (Oneshot):**

 **Gray – 15 (Sophomore)**

 **Lyon – 16 (Junior)**

Lyon wasn't entirely sure what he thought he would find on the other side of his front door when he heard a knock at eleven 'o clock at night. Maybe he'd expected it to be his parents, home early from their week-long vacation to visit his Great Aunt Gertrude in Australia. Or maybe he'd even expected the old bat herself to be standing there with them, complaining about how cold it was outside. What he had not been expecting to see, however, was Gray, standing outside in the middle of winter, eyes red and puffy and with nothing but a t-shirt and a pair of pajama pants to protect him from the cold. He was shocked to say the least.

"Gray, what the hell happened to you?" He asked, ushering the younger boy inside before shutting and locking the door behind him. He turned around, facing Gray and waiting for him to answer his question.

"My, uh, my folks and I got into a fight. Th-they kicked me out. S-s-sorry, this was the only place I c-could th-th-think to go," Gray said, teeth chattering.

When Lyon noticed Gray's shivering, he left, quickly returning with a blanket that Gray happily wrapped around himself. Lyon decided that he wouldn't ask what the fight had been about. Seeing as it had made Gray cry, if his red-rimmed eyes were anything to go by. It must have been pretty bad, so Lyon thought it best to leave it alone for the time being.

"I-is it okay if I stay h-here?" Gray asked, his shivering beginning to subside.

"Yeah, of course. Do you really even have to ask at this point?" Lyon asked rhetorically.

Lyon then led Gray to the living room, where he proceeded to sit him down on the couch and turn on the tv. After a few moments of complete silence, save for the television playing quietly in the background, Gray's shivering had disappeared and the red around his eyes was less noticeable, so Lyon decided to speak up.

"Hey, Gray?" The boy looked up from where he was staring blankly at his hands in his lap, "What happened? With your parents, I mean."

Lyon knew he'd told himself he wouldn't ask, but Gray was so quiet. And for all the time that Lyon had known him, which was as long as he could remember, Gray had never been quiet, unless he was desperately trying to hold himself back from saying something he knew he really shouldn't, but that didn't seem to be the case here.

So, he'd asked anyway, but it didn't appear he'd be getting any answers. Gray remained silent for another ten minutes, gaze turned to his lap, before he finally began to talk.

"They've known for the past couple weeks that I was dating someone. I don't know how, I never told them, but they knew. So I finally decided to tell them who it was. And, well… Let's just say they didn't approve."

Lyon was confused now. He'd met Gray's parents many times, he'd spent a lot of time over at his house. They had seemed like rather nice people, so Lyon didn't understand why they'd fought so badly with Gray over someone he was dating that he'd felt the need to leave.

"Well, Christ, Gray. What did she do, commit murder?" Lyon inquired, only half joking.

Gray chuckled slightly, and Lyon felt a little better knowing that Gray wasn't so upset that he couldn't laugh at his crappy excuse for a joke.

"No, no, nothing like that," Gray paused, Lyon assumed to find the correct words, and then continued speaking, "I-I think it's more because she...is a he."

Lyon was confused for a moment. What did he mean a he? Did that mean- oh. Oh.

Now Lyon felt anger burning in the pit of his stomach. Not at Gray, no, he would never be angry at Gray for something as trivial as being gay. No, he was mad because Gray had arrived on his doorstep at eleven pm, freezing cold and just finished crying, because his parents had kicked him out of his own house for dating a guy.

When Gray saw the furious expression on Lyon's face, he thought it was directed at him, and began to take back all that he had said, "No, Lyon, I-I was just kidding. I didn't mean it, I-"

"Gray," Lyon tried to interrupt Gray's rambling.

"-I was just kidding. My-my friend dared me to do it, I swear I-"

"Gray," Lyon tried again.

"-would never be something so-so disgusting. I-"

"Gray!"

Gray shut his mouth immediately, looking at Lyon with a panicked expression.

Lyon paused for a moment before asking, "Gray, does he make you happy?"

Now he was confused, but he answered the question anyway, "Of-of course he does."

"Well, then, I'm happy for you," Lyon smiled. Really, Lyon wouldn't have cared if Gray had fallen in love with a goddamn tree, as long as it made him happy.

Once he had processed the words, he looked at Lyon hopefully, "Really?"

"'Course. You're still you," he spoke. Then, as an afterthought, he added, "Unfortunately."

Gray chuckled again at Lyon's words, extremely relieved by them as well.

"So...who's the lucky guy," Lyon asked teasingly, causing Gray to turn bright red.

"His name's Natsu," he spoke hesitantly.

Lyon recognized the name, eventually connecting it to the boy who had tutored Gray in chemistry.

"So that's it!" He shouted, causing Gray to jump.

Gray gave him a puzzled look, "What's what?"

"I knew you weren't that bad in chemistry! Gray, you sly dog!" Lyon laughed as Gray turned red, proving that Lyon's assumptions were correct.

"Hey, he was cute. I figured it was worth a shot," Gray shrugged, grin spreading across his face, which was nearly the same shade as a tomato.

Lyon laughed even harder at Gray's reasoning. He figured that Gray's parents would come around eventually, it didn't seem like them to disown Gray over something so stupid. Perhaps they were just mad that he hadn't told them sooner. But even if they never accepted this fact about Gray, Lyon was sure he'd still be there for his friend.

 **So, thoughts? Just a side note, I don't particularly ship Gratsu, I mean, if it happened I would sure as hell fangirl and all, but my main ships are Gruvia an NaLu (yes, I know I said I shipped ErLu up top, it's a complicated show). But, anyway hope you enjoyed and will continue to stick with this story. Bye and see you next Saturday!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey** , **guys! I'm back with another chapter, and hopefully you like it. Also, I've come to realize that most of the stories I'm writing/plan to write are AUs, which I hope is okay with you guys. I feel like AUs are good for a fandom like Fairy Tail, because it's so long and I'm too impatient to finish it before reading/writing anything, and there aren't really too many spoilers in my AUs. So, I hope that's cool with you guys, and just in case it's not, have no fear, I have a couple ideas for cannon situations, just have to rewatch some episodes to make sure they're all good, and I'm a procrastinator so… Anyway, on with the chapter! Hope you enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing. Promise.**

 **Nightmares (Oneshot):**

 **Gray – 9 (4th Grade)**

 **Lyon – 10 (5th Grade)**

 _Gray grasped his mother's hand as she led him through the streets. It was oddly quiet for a Saturday in the busiest part of town, but he couldn't find it within himself to care. He was enjoying spending time with his family, especially since it was one of the few occasions in which he was not fighting with his brother._

 _They were on their way to a place which he couldn't seem to remember, but he did know that he was excited to arrive. To distract himself from his slight impatience, Gray began to count the number of people in the shops they passed along the way. It was when he'd begun to count the people inside the third store they were walking passed, just reaching the tenth, that he heard a scream._

 _He looked around, trying to discern where the scream had come from. In his assessment of the situation, he realized that his elder brother had disappeared. A feeling of dread settled in his stomach, because now that he thought about it, the scream had sounded awfully familiar._

 _It was the same scream that he heard every Christmas or birthday, filled with joy and excitement. Except this time it was filled with neither of those things. This time it was filled with fear._

 _Gray began to tug on his mother's arm, trying to tell her what he had just recently discovered, but found that neither of his parents were even paying attention to him, nor did it seem they were willing to._

 _Did they not hear it? How could they not have heard that ear-splitting, heart-wrenching scream? Especially since it had come from their own child._

 _Gray didn't think he'd have the time to tell them all that had just gone through his mind, and he didn't think they'd really want to listen. He didn't know when he'd started running, but when he looked back, he realized he could not even see his mother or father, nor any of the other people or shops that had surrounded him. He slowed to a walk and surveyed this new location._

 _This street was much like the one previous, except there were also many differences between the two. While the first street had at least a small amount of people, this one had none at all. It was completely void of any life, at least as far as Gray could tell. There were no shopkeepers inside their stores, bargaining and begging people to buy their products, and no customers, haggling with sellers for lower prices, as was custom in his town._

 _He looked up at the sky. The clouds were dark, looking as though they were about to burst with precipitation, and he could hear thunder lowly rumbling in the distance. All of this was soon accompanied by a sudden scream._

 _His heart jumped into his throat and he began screaming for his brother, "Lyon! Lyon, where are you?!"_

 _Gray broke out into a run once again as he searched through every store and back alley, desperate to find the source of the scream. It had been about ten minutes since the second scream had sounded when he finally spotted something._

 _In his frantic running, he almost missed the flash of white, peeking out from around the corner of a shop. The sleeve of his brother's white jacket._

 _He cleared the distance between himself and the jacket in record time, nearly falling flat on his face as he rounded the corner._

 _"Ly-Lyon?"_

 _His brother lay still, so still that he couldn't believe it to have ever been possible for him to move. He lay on his back, eyes staring unblinkingly up at the dreary sky. It had begun to rain at some point, though Gray couldn't seem to remember when. The cold droplets were beginning to seep through his clothing, and the thunder that accompanied them roared loudly as lightening split across the sky, but Gray didn't care, because his brother's chest wasn't moving up and down; the telltale sign that he was breathing, that he was_ _ **alive**_ _; and his eyes remained opened as rain droplets fell, piercing their skin, though Gray had a sinking feeling that only one of them could feel it._

 _He fell to his knees and dropped his head to the older boy's chest, checking for his heartbeat the only way he knew how, and praying for something,_ _ **anything**_ _, that would signal it was still beating. He was met with silence, and it wasn't until a sob choked its way from his throat that he noticed his tears, joining the rain as they both raced down his cheeks._

 _It felt like forever that he sat there and cried, sobbing for his brother to wake up because this was_ _ **not**_ _funny, until he was interrupted by a screech. It split through the air and silenced him, entirely different than the screams that had led him here, entirely inhuman._

 _Gray looked to find a creature only a few yards away, its body hidden within the darkness of the shadows. It slowly moved towards them – yes, them, because Lyon just_ _ **had**_ _to still be there – with each staggering step it took. Gray tried to drag his brother from that place, to get away from the monster that loomed ahead of them, but he was fatigued from all of his running and crying and found he couldn't._

 _He pulled the body of his older brother closer and shut his eyes tightly, refusing to leave the elder boy behind. He screamed for his mother and father to come and save them, for his brother to wake up and help him get away from the surely-grotesque monster that approached them, but his pleas went unanswered._

 _He opened his eyes to see if the monster was still lurking in the shadows of the buildings, and saw it just as it sprung into the air. Thunder crackled and lightening flashed overhead as the monster opened its mouth, saliva dripping from its teeth as it pounced on its prey._

...

Gray's eyes snapped open and he sat up, choking back something, whether a scream or a sob, he didn't quite know.

He raised a hand to his chest, feeling his heart rapidly thumping beneath his palm. He then reached up to his face, and upon finding it drenched with tears, promptly wiped them away. Gray took deep breaths, all the while whispering that it was only a dream as a means of calming himself down.

When his heartbeat had slowed and his breathing returned to normal, he layed back down on his bed and stared at his ceiling. He thought how ridiculous it was for him, a boy of nine years of age, to be so entirely frightened by something as stupid as a dream, but it did not stop his heart from fluttering slightly when he thought of dead, unblinking eyes or monsters shrouded in darkness, ready to pounce.

Gray once again began to remind himself of the fact that it was all just a dream, just something his mind had conjured up to scare him. Just as it began to sink in that it was just a dream, a clap of thunder shook the house, and he was hit with the terrifying thought of " _What_ _if_ _it_ _wasn't?_ "

It was completely irrational to believe that a monster would be responsible for the death of his brother, but a multitude of other things could happen that resulted in him getting up the next morning and no longer having one. Someone could break in, or Lyon's heart could stop while he was sleeping, blissfully dreaming one moment and gone the next, or maybe, just maybe, there were monster lurking in the shadows, waiting for prey upon which to pounce, and Gray had just been wholly unaware of it.

Regardless of the reason, Gray needed to be sure, so he slipped from his bed and padded with tiny footfalls across the hall into his brother's room. Knowing that eyes could play tricks, deceive you into thinking something was moving in the slightest of ways when it was really not moving at all, he crawled on top of Lyon's bed and leaned his head down to rest against the elder's chest, listening for his heartbeat. After a few moments of listening, Gray heard a soft groan, followed by a "what the hell?", and he looked up to find that Lyon had awoken.

"Gray? What are you doing?! Get off!" Lyon shouted, pushing Gray to the floor.

Gray, in turn, stared at him from his new position on the ground. He knew that there was really no chance that Lyon had died in the few hours since they had both gone to bed, and maybe people would think he was too old to be upset over a bad dream, but he was only nine years old and the dream had been so vivid, so _real_ , and his brother had been dead, with his nonexistent heartbeat and unblinking eyes and chest that didn't rise and fall, and Gray was so _terrified_ at the thought that his older brother was dead, so he did the only thing he could. His eyes began to fill with tears, eventually overflowing, and Gray began to sob.

Lyon immediately started to panic, because Gray's sobbing would surely wake their parents, and began to shush him, "Shh, Gray, shh. Don't be such a baby, I only pushed you off the bed. Shut u-"

Lyon didn't get to finish his pleading, because he was promptly cut off by Gray leaping from the floor and crashing into him. He wrapped his arms around the other boy's waist and buried his face into his torso.

"Do-don't ever le-ave me, Lyon. Please, d-do-on't e-ever leave," he pleaded.

Lyon, now realizing that the cause of Gray's crying had been something other than his pushing him from the bed, asked, "Who the hell said I was leaving?"

"I-I had a ni-ightmare and you went mi-issing and-and I heard you scream, but no-o one else heard, and mom and dad wo-uldn't listen when I told them, so-so I went to find you, and whe-en I did you weren't m-moving or-or breathing, you just kept sta-aring at the sky, but your eyes were-they looked dead and when I tr-tried to listen for your hear-heartbeat, it wasn't there, and it sta-arted storming, and then I heard-heard this thing, it was a huge mo-onster, and I knew it was what kill-killed you, but I couldn't e-even see it because i-it was so dark and I tr-tried to get you away but I was too we-ak to pull you, but I could-n't ju-st leave you there, and then the monster o-opened its mouth and I could see it's t-te-eth, and they were huge, and then it tried to e-eat us, and when I woke up I ne-eded to make sure you weren't d-dead like in my dream, so I tried to che-eck for your heartbeat, and-and just please don't leave Lyon, p-please don't leave me alo-one."

He clutched his older brother tighter, as though if he let him go he would disappear.

"Don't be stupid," Lyon said, but this tone was far gentler than his usual one, "I'm not going anywhere."

"Promise?" Gray whispered in a tiny voice, almost a whimper.

Lyon rubbed Gray's back to calm him down, "Promise."

Gray listened for the steady thrumming of Lyon's heartbeat. When he heard the distinctive thumping, he let out a small sigh of relief. Lightening flashed outside and thunder rumbled, but Gray was no longer afraid of it, because as long as he could hear the beating of his older brother's heart, could know that he was alive, everything else was okay.

When he'd finally calmed down, Gray realized that he should pick himself up and leave, go back to his room, to his own bed, and sleep, but he found that he didn't want to. Something could still happen in the middle of the night, and what if he had the dream again? Then it would just have been pointless to leave because he knew he would have to come back again, to be sure nothing had happened, and it was so comfortable on Lyon's bed, his heartbeat lulling Gray to sleep. He decided to stay.

Just as Gray was about to be pulled under by the lure of sleep, Lyon shifted, laying down so that he could sleep as well, and began to card his fingers through his little brother's hair, like their mother did whenever one of them was upset. Gray sniffled, the only thing left that suggested he'd been crying, and nestled himself into the crook of his brother's neck, just to be sure he wouldn't disappear.

 **So, did I do good? Okay? Horrible? I hope I kept them in character enough. I mean, I know they're a little OOC, but to be honest, they have to be a little bit because both of them are too stubborn to act as if they actually even like each other, so I figured they needed a little push. Well, hope you all like the chapter, and see you next week for another one. Bye!**


	6. Chapter 6

**I'm back, my lovely readers, with the next installment of Of Brothers and Best Friends! I don't believe I said it last chapter, so I will have to say it twice as enthusiastically this one, so thank you to all who read/review/favorite/follow, I love ya! Also, can we just talk about how my sister and I share our Fairy Tail fanfics with my cousin so much that she actually ships the ships and she doesn't even watch the show? Because I think it's hilarious that she gets excited for Gratsu/Sibling!Lyoray every time she visits. Anyway, on with the oneshot, this one is one of my favorites.**

 **Disclaimer:** **I** **own** **nothing, I** **swear** **it** **by** **my** **love** **of** **Fairy** **Tail.**

 **Tell** **Me a Story (Oneshot):**

 **Gray – 15**

 **Lyon** **–** **18**

There were many times they'd told the story. Lyon wasn't entirely sure when it had started, just that it had begun from some traumatizing experience or another, and so, to make both he and Gray feel a little better, he had started to spin a tale. They both added on to the story as he continued to tell it, and it ended up a common occurrence.

When Lyon had broken his arm and was stuck wearing his cast for six weeks, or the time Gray was sick with the flu and could hardly leave his bed and was, therefore, completely miserable, and even when their school was closed due to a snowstorm and they just wanted something to do, they told the story. They told it whenever it needed telling or whenever they needed to be told.

But, as with most things, they eventually outgrew it. Whenever something happened, like the time Gray's best friend had moved away or when his first "official" girlfriend had broken up with him in sixth grade, there was always that small part of Lyon, in the back of his mind, that anticipated the simple "It's your turn" that was always said when prompting the other to tell their tale, but Gray never asked, so Lyon didn't either. But right then, he couldn't tell it.

He couldn't tell it when his younger brother was confined to this blindingly-white room, with it's uncomfortable bed and paper-thin sheets. Not when he should have still had so much of his life ahead of him but didn't. Not when he was barely strong enough to lift his head, barely strong enough to croak out the words, "It's your turn."

Lyon just shook his head, because he _couldn't_ tell it, not then.

"I can't. I-I don't even remember it." A lie. How could he ever forget it? It had been permanently ingrained in his brain since he was eight years old.

Gray knew this and gave him a look, conveying that he knew Lyon's words were false, "Lyon, please. Just-" he was abruptly cut off by a fit of coughs, continuing once they had subsided, "I just want to hear it again. Please."

Lyon still didn't want to tell it, because that would just make this all the more real. He knew it was really just a matter of deciding how many hours were left until Gray made his… departure, but Lyon didn't want to believe it. His baby brother was laying before him, asking to be told a story one last time, and Lyon didn't want to do it. Maybe if he didn't tell him, he wouldn't leave. But he knew that was untrue, so he told it anyway. He told it so that his brother could hear it again, just like when they were little.

Lyon gulped and began to speak, "When we grow up, and we've made a lot of money, we'll quit our jobs and travel all around the world. We'll go to Germany, France, Australia, and Britain. Japan and China. Canada and South America and Sweden. Finland and Switzerland and Austria and Italy and Spain. Everywhere!"

He had to stop for a moment, because he was already beginning to get choked up and he had only just started. He took a few deep breaths, looked to his parents who were sleeping in the chairs across the room, then back to Gray, and continued, "Then, once we've seen everything there is to see, we'll pick our favorite place out of all of them, and we'll get jobs there and earn a load of money and send some back home to Mom and Dad, so that they can buy whatever they want and visit us whenever they want.

"We'll buy houses right next to each other and link up our basements and make it into our superhero hideout, because you were five and obsessed with superheroes and would run around in your underwear with a sheet tied around your neck, pretending to be one. You'll have a purple suit, because it was your favorite color and definitely not girly, and I'll have a blue one, because it was the color of Madison Carter's eyes, and I was eight and completely in love with her-"

"Oh, yeah, I remember her," Gray cut in, voice barely above a whisper. He gave a weak laugh, "Yeah, you loved her, until she said you looked like a hobgoblin, and you came home crying and shouting that you would never love another girl again as long as you lived."

"Shut up, it was a traumatizing experience. You try being called a, and I quote, 'disgusting hobgoblin who has no right to have a crush on her'," and Lyon laughed then, a sad laugh that was only emitted at times where you were trying to make light out of a situation that really wasn't.

The laughter faded rather quickly, and Gray signaled for Lyon to continue the story once again. He complied, "During the day we'll be just ordinary Gray and Lyon Vastia-Fullbuster, but by night we'll be Snowman, and his faithful sidekick, The Hedgehog, because you picked the names and loved snow and thought my hair looked like a hedgehog."

Lyon paused, because Gray's eyes were beginning to flutter, almost as though he were going to sleep, and his breathing became softer with each breath, until it was hardly more than a whisper. When Lyon continued, his voice was quieter, "And then, when we're too old for superhero fighting, we'll sit out on our porches, rocking in our rocking chairs, and talk about the good ol' days, like Dad does about his years playing hockey or Grandma does about her ballet, and we'll be old and wrinkly and have to shout across our yards that the other has to speak louder, because we're losing our hearing, but it'll be nice, because we were superheroes and had travelled the world and seen all the sights to see, and then we'll be able to just sit and talk about _all_ of it and not be sad about the stuff we didn't do, like Dad is about not still playing hockey, or like Grandma is because she never became a ballerina, because we'll have done everything we've wanted to do."

Lyon stood up and leaned over Gray's bed. He pushed his hair from his forehead and placed a kiss there, whispering, "I love you. Okay?"

He waited a few minutes for an answer and, finally, "Okay," in such a soft whisper he could hardly hear it, and Lyon smiled sadly.

Then the steady beeping that had been barely noticeable in the background the entire time began to slow, soon becoming a single, long beep that echoed loudly in Lyon's ears, waking his parents. His mother's eyes filled with tears and his father hugged her, trying to keep his own at bay. Doctors rushed in and Lyon was pushed to the side, silent tears turning into violent sobs as he sank to the floor.

And that was how the story ended. Stories were supposed to end with growing old and sitting on your porch and talking about life and how it was good and bad, but mostly good because you'd made it to ninety-six and were still kickin'. They weren't supposed to end with such finality. They weren't supposed to end with fatal diagnoses and estimated times of remaining life to be lived, none of which would ever be enough. They weren't supposed to end with sick little brothers and long beeps of heart monitors. They weren't supposed to end with a story he'd made at eight years old, not knowing that, at eighteen, he'd be the only one left to tell it.

 **…**

 **…**

 **…**

 **Sorry? Did I get your hope up by saying that it was my favorites, because it is, but only because I like making** **people** **suffer when sharing it with them :). Any who, before you stab me, I would just like to give you a little fun fact. The superhero name "The Hedgehog" is really because, ever since that episode where Lyon used "Ice-Make Hedgehog", my sister and I cannot stop referencing it in literally everything we write that includes Lyon, it's quite wonderful, really. Well, see you next week with a chapter that will be less morbid (or will it?).**


	7. Chapter 7

**It's that time once again, my lovely readers! Yes, I'm back with the next installment of "Of Brothers and Best Friends"! This was originally supposed to be a different oneshot, one that was considerably less dark than the one before this, but definitely a lot darker than this one. However, I decided I want to make a sequel of sorts to that one, and so I don't want to post it until said sequel is written, so hopefully you're glad I've decided to spare you. For now…**

 **Anyway, on with the oneshot!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except for Mildred.**

 **Not Orange, Blue! (Oneshot):**

 **Gray – 4 (Preschool)**

 **Lyon – 5 (Kindergarten)**

Lyon didn't have many friends. Well, okay, that was a lie. There was that Sherry girl who, whenever she spoke, only spouted nonsense about love and continuously trailed him wherever he went. And those other two in his class, Toby, the one who was obsessed with dogs, having dressed as one for Halloween and even going as far as to wear the head-banded ears that had come with the costume some days, and what's-his-face, the one whose eyebrows really looked more like bushes glued to his face.

He thought maybe they might be his friends as well, even if he couldn't remember all of their names. Yes, perhaps those three qualified as his companions, and his teacher, Mr. Neekis, of course, because he was very nice to Lyon, but he figured it was because he was a teacher and he sort of had to be.

But they were nothing compared to this new friend. Lyon had only just met her, but he was certain that she was going to be his bestest friend for all of forever. She had beautiful blue wings with black patches (but they were completely symmetrical, Lyon checked, even if he didn't entirely understand the meaning of the word), and her long tongue rolled up into a little loop and unraveled every time she went to drink, which greatly entertained Lyon, and he giggled every time her tongue made an appearance.

She wasn't entirely _human_ , actually, not at all. She was a butterfly, but Lyon thought that butterflies made just as good of friends as people did, if not better. And that was why he was so utterly devastated when his younger brother came tumbling out the front door, unaware of his tiny little friend.

"Lee, look what I got! Lee!" Gray shouted, bolting across the yard in record time, intent on showing the older boy his surprise as soon as was physically possible. However, in his excitement, he failed to notice the small creature poised upon one of the many blades of grass he stood on when he came to stop before Lyon.

Whatever it was that Gray began to tell Lyon in an excited jumble of words, he did not hear, because he was far too busy staring in horrified shock at the other boy's shoe. Gray, when noticing his older brother's attention was not focused on him, tilted his head to the side and asked, "What's the matter, Lyon?"

Lyon could only manage to whisper a quiet, "You killed her," in response. Gray followed his gaze and lifted up his shoe, spotting the remains of the small bug on the bottom.

Lyon, seeing the grotesque murder scene beneath his brother's foot, felt like throwing up, and he almost did, before he looked away and covered his eyes with his hands.

"Gray!" He shouted, tears beginning to form in the corners of his eyes, "You killed her! She was my friend, and you killed her!"

"This li'l guy?" Gray asked, glancing once more at the crushed insect on the underside of his sneaker, "How d'ya even know it's a girl?"

"Shut up!" Lyon yelled as he stood up to storm back into the house, still crying over the loss of his friend.

…

It was about two hours later when Gray decided that his brother had had enough time to grieve over his "friend" and tried, once again, to show him what he'd tried to earlier.

"Lee, look! I found a worm in the plant pot in the kitchen!" He smiled brightly and held out his hands to show off the small creature to Lyon, as though it were a trophy he'd won.

"I don't care about your stupid worm," Lyon mumbled sourly, staring intently at the kitchen table, intently enough that Gray thought he might just burn two holes into it.

Gray pouted, muttering, "Your butterfly is stupid," before going back to his room, where he kept his worm in a small plant pot, for safe keeping, as Gray liked to reason.

After a good deal of pouting, Gray finally came to a conclusion. He would try to make it up to Lyon for killing his butterfly, Gray thought he would be pretty upset too if someone killed his pet worm (who he had creatively decided to name "Wormy"), and so he got to work.

…

A while later, while Lyon was sitting on the couch, moping about the loss of his newly-proclaimed best friend and thinking about the possibility of holding a funeral for her, his thoughts were interrupted by Gray plonking himself, rather inelegantly, onto the cushion beside him and shoving a piece of paper in his face.

Lyon snatched the paper away, more so to get a better look than to be cruel, and was surprised to find a crayon-drawn picture of a butterfly. Gray had drawn his lost little friend. Although, admittedly, it was orange instead of blue, crudely drawn, and not at all symmetrical, Lyon figured it was the thought that counted.

Lyon also saw a scribble in the the bottom right corner that read, "From: Gre To: Leeown", and even though his name (and Gray's, for that matter) was horribly misspelled, he smiled at the blue crayon that it was drawn in, although he couldn't remember telling Gray that it was his favorite color.

"Thanks, Gray. I'm sure Mildred would love it."

The air was filled with a thoughtful silence, until, "Her name was _Mildred_."

Lyon nodded, narrowing his eyes at Gray's tone.

"That's the dumbest name I ever heard! It's a old lady name!" Gray giggled.

"Shut up, it is not!" Lyon yelled indignantly, though it sounded more like a whine, and when Gray's giggles persisted, he added, "Well, I think Gray's the stupidest name _I_ ever heard."

Gray's laughing ceased, and he defensively shouted, "Nu-uh, Lyon's dumber! Who ever heard of a dumb name like that!"

And they continued like that, back and forth, until they both ran out of insults to throw, their truce all but forgotten. But later that night, Lyon still hung the drawing over his bed, and he would go on to insist that it was solely for the memorial of Mildred and definitely not because he had any sort of caring for his younger brother.

…

"Hey, Lyon I-" a thirteen-year-old Gray walked into his brother's room, stopping short when he saw the crayon-drawing hanging above the bed, all questions about borrowing pencils forgotten, "You still have that hung up in here?"

Lyon turned to Gray, following his gaze and spotting the crudely drawn butterfly hanging on his wall. He shrugged and turned back to the papers on his desk, "Just never got around to taking it down, I guess."

Gray looked around at Lyon's walls, presumably counting all the other wall-hangings that Lyon had taken down since he was five years old, so Lyon added, "Plus, it memorializes Mildred, and I wouldn't dream of dishonoring her memory."

"Dude, she's just a bug," Gray deadpanned, and Lyon whipped around so quickly that Gray was nearly convinced it was a superpower.

"She was not just a bug, she was my friend! You take that back!" Lyon shouted in a dangerous tone.

"Why don't you make me," Gray smirked, and Lyon lunged, chasing him down the hall. And let's just say that their mother was very confused when both her sons came rushing out into the living room, shouting about an orange butterfly that should have been blue.

 **So? How was it? I thought it was cute, and so did my sister, but that might just be because she's my sister and all (but she also thought Gray was a dumbass for not knowing how to spell his own name when it doubles as a color, so maybe not). Anyways, hope you enjoyed, and see you next week with whatever specific oneshot from my arsenal I decide to post. Bye!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello, my lovlies, sorry I'm updating so late in the day, I was helping my mom clean (and by helping I mean she asked me to and I did it because moms are scary). Now, this is the oneshot I was referring to in last week's author's note, the one I wanted to post but didn't because of reasons that I'm too lazy to type. And, to my dear sister for whom this was written, Happy Birthday! (that is, after all, what I wrote this for, back in November when it was actually our birthday, but you know me, dear twin, I am ever the procrastinator). Also, thank you to all who read or give any kind of feedback, especially Kori no Koibito, not because you comment the most or anything like that (not to say that your comments aren't lovely, I do so appreciate them), but becuase I do believe I a little bit killed you a couple chapters ago, and I don't want you to sue me or anything. Alright, now on with the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **Home Alone (Oneshot):**

 **Gray – 7 (1st Grade)**

 **Lyon – 10 (4th Grade)**

"Where are they?" Lyon murmured to himself as he sat on a stool in his kitchen. Said kitchen was void of any light, in order for Lyon to better see outside, and the only noises to be heard were the murmurings of the television, left on and abandoned in the living room, and the occasional vehicle zooming by on the nearly-deserted streets before the young boy's house. Lyon stared out the kitchen window, beside which his stool sat, searching those nearly-deserted streets for any movement, and after a few moments, in which he'd seen not even the slightest movement (besides that of a squirrel scurrying up a tree), he groaned in irritation.

His mother was out to pick up his father from the airport, as he'd gone on a business trip a couple of weeks ago to some other state or country that Lyon couldn't remember the name of. Lyon really hoped they would get back soon, because he was starting to get rather tired. But he refused to go to sleep before his father got home, unlike Gray, who had gone to bed quite some time ago after being promised that yes, Lyon would wake him up when Daddy got home.

Lyon rested his elbow on the windowsill, leaning his head on the propped up limb and letting out a bored sigh. It really didn't help that he lived in the middle of nowhere, where the nearest airport was about a two-hour drive away. In his mind, he tried to figure out just how soon his mother would be pulling into that driveway, and if his calculations were to be trusted – which, usually, they weren't, but he would trust them just this once on something so simple – his parents would be home at any minute.

Just as he'd finished that thought, a pair of headlights drove by, lighting up the almost pitch-black road before them. Lyon watched them drive closer with a look of complete unconcern, as he'd already gotten his hopes up with the ten to twelve cars that had come before this one. However, as it neared the turn just passed his house, Lyon saw the car swerve and pull into his driveway.

He sprang up happily and placed back his stool, no longer needing it now that his parents had _finally_ arrived home. Lyon couldn't really see the color of the car through the darkness, but it looked to be the same outline as that of the gray minivan that his mother always drove, and though he couldn't really see it, he could have sworn that there, on the back left door, was the dent from that time Gray had crashed his bike into it. The only problem was, only one person stepped out of the car.

Lyon stood before the front door and watched through its small window as the figure exited the car. He couldn't make out their face, because, again, it was _really dark_ out, but it looked as if they were dressed completely in black. Lyon, no longer believing that the person who had parked in front of his house was either of his parents, watched the figure curiously. They walked, almost in a crouch, around the entire house, looking in and tugging at windows, and that was when Lyon realized exactly _what_ was going on. This person was trying to break into his house.

When that realization sank in, Lyon felt fear settle in his stomach. As a ten-year-old, the only times he had experienced fear was when he went on a particularly scary amusement park ride, or when he and his brother did something particularly stupid, but nothing that ever resulted in something more than a broken bone or two. This terror was a completely foreign feeling to him.

Sincerely doubting that two children being in the house would stop whoever was lurking outside from coming in, Lyon rushed quietly from the kitchen, grabbing the phone from its receiver on the wall, and once he was hidden from the view of any windows, he began to run down the hall. When he reached Gray's bedroom, he opened the door, and without making a single sound, shook Gray awake.

"Is Daddy home?" The small boy mumbled, attempting to rub the sleep from his eyes.

"No. Gray, I need you to listen to me-"

"Why'd you wake me up if they aren't back yet?" Gray grumbled, completely missing the urgency in Lyon's tone.

"Because there's som-" Lyon was interrupted by a loud crash coming from the kitchen.

"What was that?" Gray asked, now fully awake with a mixture of confusion and alarm shining in his eyes.

"Someone was outside the house. And I think they just got in," Lyon whispered, quickly grabbing Gray's hand and dragging him farther down the hall.

They heard the thumping of footsteps as whoever had broken in began to walk through their home. Lyon, thinking quickly, pulled them both into the bathroom, quietly closing and locking the door and opening the cabinet beneath the sink.

"There's no way both of us will fit in there," Gray said hopelessly.

"Yes, we will," Lyon said, handing Gray the phone as he began to clear a space within the cabinet as quietly as he could.

Once he'd pushed aside enough of the cabinet's contents, he climbed in and gestured for Gray to squeeze in as well. Gray, seeming to forget their situation for a moment, looked at Lyon as if he'd lost his mind, whispering, "I'll have to lay on top of you. I'm not doing that!"

"Gray, this is really not the time!" Lyon hissed, and as if to prove his point, another crashing noise came from the living room. Gray's terror returned, and he quickly climbed inside the cabinet.

Lyon closed the door, and for the next few minutes, they both sat in the dark, Gray laying almost completely on top of Lyon, when the older boy remembered the phone. He quickly dialed the three numbers that all children knew to call in case of an emergency. Lyon dialed them, and a woman picked up almost immediately.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"Some-someone is in my house," Lyon whispered.

There was the sound of clicking computer keys before she gently asked, "Can you tell me your name and address?" and Lyon felt himself calm down, enough so that he could remember the information she had asked him to give.

He heard the click of keyboard keys as she typed in what he told her and then the quiet thumping of footsteps coming down the hall. Lyon's heartbeat picked back up, and he felt his fear rise from the pit of his stomach up into his throat until it was almost choking him.

"Alright, the police are on their way. Is anyone else there with you?" the lady asked.

 _Good, the police are coming_ , Lyon thought, then answered her question, forcing the words out passed the lump in his throat, "M-my little brother, Gray."

"Okay, and are either of you hurt?"

Lyon shook his head, before realizing that she couldn't see this action and spoke instead, "N-no, they didn't s-see us, I don't think."

"Are you somewhere safe?"

"We're in the cabinet u-under the bathroom sink. The door's locked."

As soon as Lyon had finished speaking, he heard a choked sound, and Lyon realized that Gray had been silently crying. He began to rub soothing circles in the younger boy's back, and when he heard no protests, he figured that being nice to each other was okay in dangerous situations such as this one.

"L-Lee, I'm scared. I-I don't want to-to die," the seven-year-old whispered in a terrified voice, using his nickname for Lyon that he had, almost a year ago, declared too babyish for a six-going-on-seven-year-old.

"You won't. The-the police are on their way. We-we'll be fine, promise," Lyon tried to reassure him, but his voice began to shake halfway through, and he figured it didn't sound as convincing as he'd hoped. Gray nodded, and though he was still crying, it seemed to have lessened slightly.

The lady on the other end continued to talk to Lyon in a comforting voice, asking things like what grades they were in and what their favorite movies were. After a few minutes of whispered conversation, Lyon heard the doorknob to the bathroom door jiggle and then a loud 'BANG!' as whoever it was kicked the door open. Gray began to cry again, and he slapped his hand over his mouth to muffle his sobs, screwing his eyes shut and burying his face into Lyon's torso. Lyon wrapped his free arm tightly around his brother as fear spread throughout his entire body, until he was sure that it was flowing through his veins in the place of his blood.

When the woman – she'd told them her name, but in that moment, Lyon couldn't seem to remember it – asked what was happening, Lyon could only whisper, "The door's not locked anymore."

"Okay, be very quiet and try not to make a single sound," she instructed, and Lyon just nodded, even though she could not see it.

He heard footsteps as they walked around and rummaged through things about the room. Lyon was shaking so hard that he didn't notice the phone slipping from his hand until it had fallen loudly to the bottom of the cabinet. He heard them stop, listening for the noise, and he held his breath, praying that they would think nothing of the noise and just leave the room. His prayers went unanswered.

He heard shuffling and squeezed Gray even tighter, because now the fear wasn't just in his own blood but in the very air he breathed. The door to the cabinet creaked open slowly, until Lyon saw a face. A man with a stubbly beard and hair and eyes that he couldn't tell the color of in the darkness stared back at him, and Lyon suddenly noticed the tears running down his cheeks.

He heard the faint mumbling of the woman on the phone, probably asking what was happening and why he was not answering her questions, but he ignored her and continued to stare at the man before him as his face became slightly angry and he cursed and mumbled to himself, "There are fucking kids here? Shit, shit, shit."

He then spoke up, "Okay, guess you two are coming with me," and it sounded too casual in a situation that held the imminent possibility of death.

He grabbed Lyon by his arm, and Lyon tried to tug back, but the only thing he'd managed to do was yank his arm hard enough to bruise. The man pulled him from under the sink, and Gray followed, because Lyon refused to let go of him. When they stepped through the doorway, Lyon stopped in his tracks, successfully stopping the man as well.

"We're not going anywhere with you," Lyon said defiantly, though he guessed he didn't seem as intimating as he'd have liked with tears staining his cheeks and a seven-year-old clinging to his torso.

"You'll do whatever I tell you to do," the man growled, and Lyon saw something flash in his hand as he brought it up to point at Lyon. A gun.

Lyon felt the fear once again lodge itself in his throat, but he still had half a mind to continue disobeying the man, until Gray nudged him, whispering, "R-remember what-what you pro-omised. We're gonna be-be okay. And we m-means you, too."

Lyon looked down at the small boy. Tears stained his cheeks and continued to crawl down them, and he looked at his older brother pleadingly. Lyon nodded and allowed the man to keep tugging them along.

When they'd reached the end of the hallway, Lyon heard the faint screeching of sirens, and his heart fluttered with hope. Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one to hear them.

The man turned around. Lyon thought he'd never seen someone look so intensely angry before, and it scared him. Before he knew what was happening, he felt his back collide with the wall and his feet lift from the floor.

"You called the police?! You little brat!" the man snarled, and Lyon clawed at the hands around his neck. _He couldn't breath._

Gray began to cry even harder, whimpering pleadingly, "St-stop it! You're hurting him!" But he did not move, and Lyon knew it was because he was petrified with the same fear that had earlier been the sole source of his choking.

The man didn't listen, his hands remaining around Lyon's neck, blocking his airway. Lyon's vision was beginning to fade, and his arms fell limply at his sides as his lungs screamed for air.

Suddenly, he was once again on the floor, sucking sweet air into his oxygen-deprived lungs even though it burned his sore throat. He saw the man as he jumped through one of the windows, its glass laying shattered on the floor along with the ceramic shards of one of the decorations his mother had put out for Halloween, showing the origin of the crashes they had heard earlier whilst huddled in the bathroom cabinet. He darted across the yard, and Lyon could hardly make out his figure in the darkness of the night. He turned away from the scene, focusing solely on pulling in the life-giving oxygen from the air as he heard someone barge through the front door.

Lyon awkwardly turned from his position on the ground to face the source of the noise, fearing that the man had returned or possibly a companion of his, but to his relief, he saw only men dressed in police uniforms. Lyon was pulled from the ground, and he and Gray were whisked outside to waiting medical professionals. Once they had been assessed and treated accordingly, they found themselves sitting in the back of an ambulance, wrapped up in a blanket that one of the nurses had explained was to keep them from going into shock, whatever that meant.

They both sat huddled together in their shared blanket, silent except for Gray's apology for not doing anything whilst Lyon was being choked, and Lyon telling him that it was alright. Lyon could feel the bruises on his arm and neck beginning to form, but Gray seemed relatively unharmed, though he probably wouldn't be sleeping soundly for a while. Lyon didn't think either of them would.

After about twenty minutes, a gray minivan with a dent in the back left door pulled into the driveway, and two very worried looking parents came rushing out of it, running over to Gray and Lyon. Suddenly, Lyon felt as if he were three years old again, wanting nothing more than to jump into his parents' arms and be told that everything would be okay.

His mother and father ran to them, his mother smothering Gray in a hug and his father lifting him up into his arms as though having organized which parent would comfort which child. Lyon clung to his father, as he was sure Gray was doing to their mother, and began to sob, telling him about how he'd just wanted to be awake when he'd gotten home and that he'd thought the man was them and how scared he'd been, hiding in the cabinet beneath the sink. And his father hugged him back just as tightly, saying that everything would be okay and that they would never be left home alone again. And Lyon thought that he'd be okay with that, that he didn't want to be left home alone again, at least, not for a very long while.

 **You like? I hope that was a yes. Also, if you liked this and want a sequel, well, have no fear, because there is one! Or, well, half of one, it's still in progress, but it should be done by next week, so don't you worry your pretty little heads, my dears. Well, that's all I have to say, so until next week!**


	9. Chapter 9

**The next chapter is here, my friends! If you didn't read in last week's update or have forgotten, this is the sequel to last week's chapter. Also, thank you to all who have read or given any kind of feedback, you make my day. Speaking of feedback, we've reached 20 reviews guys! I'm very excited about this and honestly didn't expect this by chapter 8 or 9 (which ever this is) which sounds kind of sad I guess, but I just thought I would get maybe like 1 review per chapter (/maybe/) and a favorite/follow maybe once a month, so I'm just happy there are this many of you reading, so thank you, my lovely readers, and here is another chapter for you to read. Hope you enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: Nothing is mine, and sadly, it never will be.**

 **Sleepovers Are Fun, Except For the Sleeping Part (Oneshot) (Sequel to "Home Alone"):**

 **Gray – 7 (2nd Grade)**

 **Lyon – 10 (5th Grade)**

 _There were sirens blaring somewhere off in the distance, and Gray felt his heart leap as hope began to chip away at the seemingly endless feeling of fear. Then the man flipped around, and the hope was cruelly snatched away from him as terror once again took its place. He could see that the man was shouting, but he couldn't discern exactly what was being said, because his heartbeat was pounding so loudly in his ears that he really couldn't hear much of anything._

 _And then the man had taken his brother, ripped him harshly out of Gray's grasp as though it were nothing despite his holding on as tightly as was physically possible. The man had his hands around Lyon's neck, and Lyon's face was beginning to turn unnatural shades of red and purple, and though he still couldn't hear a thing, he knew that his mouth was moving to form some sort of plea, to beg for him to let his brother go, because he was hurting him._

 _The man did not answer, and then Lyon stopped struggling, no longer clawing at the hands around his neck, and the man held him there for just a moment longer before fleeing from their home. The door burst open then, and Gray turned to see policemen running to them. They lifted Lyon from the floor and guided Gray from the house, and the woman who was escorting him out assured him that everything was going to be okay. But he already knew that it wouldn't be. He'd already seen it, the look in his brother's eyes. And the problem was that there wasn't one, they looked empty. Dead._

 _Gray hadn't realized that his hearing had returned until he heard a broken, animalistic scream. It took him a few moments to realize that he was the one screaming._

...

Gray jolted awake, his sleeping having been disturbed by the scream trying to work its way from his throat, though it was less screaming and more choking. He sat straight up, and his back ached slightly. His eyes darted back and forth, and he found himself in an unfamiliar setting. He was about to begin panicking, though that was hardly the smartest thing to do when finding yourself in a situation such as this, but said panic began to die down as he remembered where he was. He was in a sleeping bag on the floor of Natsu's bedroom.

The pink-haired boy had asked Gray if he'd wanted to sleep over, a request in which Gray accepted only after thorough parental convincing. It'd been two months since the incident, and while he and Lyon had both had their fair share of nightmares, his had stopped almost two weeks ago (though he couldn't say the same for Lyon, after all, Gray was the one who went to Lyon's room to seek comfort after a particularly harsh nightmare, not the other way around, so he wouldn't know such things), and that confirmation was enough to convince his parents that he would be okay without them for one night, that and his promise to call them if anything happened. And happened something had.

Gray swiped furiously at his eyes, wiping away the tears that he knew would be there after having had the same nightmare so many times (curse him for being such a baby), and though he had had it many, _many_ times, it never got any less scary. Any less _real_. Because if a man could break into his house and nearly kill him and his brother, then another one could do the exact same and there would be no "nearly" about it. And Gray hated it.

He hated that this man had decided to choose their house out of all the other houses in the world, in their town, even. He hated that, because of it, his parents were always paranoid, rarely ever leaving Gray and Lyon home without one of them there, and if neither of them could be there, a babysitter it was. He hated that he still jumped when he heard a loud noise and that Lyon still flinched whenever someone touched his neck, despite the bruises having faded weeks ago (though Gray swore he could still see them if he looked closely enough).

He hated that all he could think about was _"What if Lyon hadn't taken the phone off the wall before coming to get_ him?", _"What if they hadn't fit in the_ cabinet?", _"What if that man had held on just a minute, just a second longer?"_. He hated that he couldn't even be grateful that his brother was still alive, because every time he closed his eyes, all he could picture was him dead. He wiped again at his eyes, because the tears just continued to come, and he hated that all he could do now was cry.

"Gray?"

And when Gray turned to look at his friend, he hated the worried look on his face, because all anyone around him ever did anymore was look worried, as though their worry would somehow fix what'd happened.

"Are you okay?"

And suddenly he couldn't hate the look on Natsu's face, because he knew it was only there because his friend cared and wanted to know why Gray was crying in the middle of the night if the nightmares had stopped. But that didn't mean he still couldn't hate everything else.

"I-I'm fine," he supplied, his voice still shaky from crying.

"Are you sure? My mom can take you home if you don't wanna stay. I won't hold it against you or nothin'."

Gray just shook his head, he didn't want to leave, there was just something he needed to do first, "No, I wanna stay. Just- can I use your phone to call my parents?"

Natsu's expression changed from worry to bemusement to understanding before he nodded and quietly crept from his room to get the house phone from his kitchen.

Gray thought calling his parents would calm his nerves slightly, and he would be able to go back to sleep, preferably without anymore nightmares, and he'd also promised them that he would call should anything happen. And Gray was no promise-breaker.

When Natsu returned with the technological device, he handed it to Gray before walking back out of the room and shutting the door to give the other boy some privacy. He heard Natsu sit down outside of the door, and though he knew his friend wouldn't eavesdrop on something so personal, he couldn't help but wish that he'd stayed, because the dark room was rather ominous when Gray sat in it alone.

He quickly dialed the number that he'd forced himself to memorize by heart and placed it over his ear as he waited for someone to pick up. Gray knew that it was late, but he also knew that his parents would be anxiously awaiting his call in case something should go wrong and were probably sleeping with one eye open, if at all. When the ringing did cease, however, it was not either of his parents who he found himself speaking to.

"Hello?"

It was Lyon, and Gray realized that he felt infinitely more better having it be Lyon that he was talking to, because there was still that troublesome thought at the back of his mind that still had him believing that something awful had happened to his brother.

"Lyon? What are you doing up?" Gray asked, though he already knew the answer. He also knew that it wouldn't be the answer Lyon gave him.

"Just… getting a glass of water. I woke up a little bit ago and was kinda thirsty, so…" and even if he hadn't known that was going to be a lie, Gray would have figured it out anyway, because Lyon sincerely sucked at lying.

He knew that the real reason Lyon was wondering about the house this late at night was because, while Gray's nightmares were about the what if's concerning what could have happened after the man had already broken in, Gray was sure that Lyon's were about the what if's that came before _"What if he'd never spotted the man in the first place?"_ , _"What if the man had gotten to him before he could get to Gray?"_ , _"What if he'd forgotten Gray in all the chaos?"_.

Although Lyon had never told him as much, Gray could guess because of how Lyon always liked to check on him during the night, though he'd never ask to sleep in his bed, like Gray did, or how he always needed to check that every window and door was locked and that there was nothing and no one out of the ordinary outside, which Gray was sure was Lyon's reasoning for being up tonight. He was doing his usual checking of the house before going back to sleep. Both of them knew this, yet neither commented on Lyon's lie.

"I-I had the nightmare again," Gray murmured. He wasn't one to hide the fact that he had nightmares, because he knew his brother really did worry about him. It seemed to be all he could do since the incident.

"Oh?" Lyon responded, followed by, "Do you want to come home?"

Just a simple question. It wasn't an _"Oh, do you want to come home? Because I really wish you would if you're having the nightmares again."_ Or an _"Oh, do you want to come home? Because I really wish you wouldn't, you're doing so well."_ There was no hidden meaning, it was just a simple question that Gray could answer however he pleased without feeling like he had to answer one way or another. But it really wasn't, because Gray really _did_ want to come home, to curl up next to Lyon because his parents couldn't chase the nightmares away like his brother could, because they weren't the ones that died in them.

But he couldn't go home, because, gosh darn it, he was seven years old and that was too old to be running home because of some dumb nightmares, especially when Gray knew his friend still wanted him to stay, though he would never say it, because he wanted Gray to get better after the whole ordeal that had happened two months ago. But he didn't know if he would ever get better or if the nightmares would ever go away, so it was no use doing things as if they would.

"No, I'm okay. I just wanna talk for a little bit," he finally said, and he found that his voice no longer shook.

"Okay," Lyon spoke through the receiver, "Then what do you want to talk about?"

Gray paused a moment before saying, in such a small voice that even he could hardly recognize it, "I just want to know if they're ever gonna stop. I'm so sick of these nightmares, Lee. I just- I don't want you to die anymore, p-please."

There was a long silence before Lyon began to speak again, "Gray, listen to me. I can't promise you that everything's just going to magically go away by tomorrow morning, but it'll get better. It won't last forever, I swear."

Although Lyon had admitted to being unsure of when everything would stop, Gray still felt better just knowing that the nightmares would go away eventually (and he did know, because Lyon sounded so sure of it, and Gray knew his brother would never lie to him about something like this), because them lasting forever made everything seem hopeless.

"Okay," Gray said in that same small voice he'd used before when begging for his brother to tell him that the nightmares would stop.

After Gray had hung up and Natsu had come back in, and after they'd both gone back to sleep, Gray survived the rest of the night without another nightmare. And even though he knew he'd inevitably have another one, in which he would awaken with a scream – emitting it or choking on it – and tears streaming down his face, it was okay, because he knew that he'd always be able to run to his brother, who would chase them away, and for whom he hoped he'd be able to do the same.

 **I wasn't entirely sure about Lyon's response to what Gray said, but other than that, I'm pretty happy with this, so hopefully you liked it. Alright, well, that's it for this week. See you guys next Saturday!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Oh, my god. I am so sorry this is coming out so late in the day. I was really busy this week, and I didn't have a lot of time to write this, so it wasn't even finished this morning, but I didn't want to leave you guys without a chapter, so I finished it up today. I hope it isn't too crap, because I think it's pretty okay (although they might be slightly OOC, but I really wanted to write this, and they kind of had to be for how I wanted to write it). Anyway, thank you to everyone who reads/reviews/follows/favorites, you all are very lovely and extremely kind for taking the time to read my stories, and I am endlessly grateful. Okay, now on with the oneshot!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **Sleepy Little Brothers and Forgotten Responsibilities:**

 **Gray – 6 (Kindergarten)**

 **Lyon – 9 (3rd Grade)**

Ever since Lyon's parents told him he was going to have a brother, he was beyond excited. He would have someone he could play with, someone who he could _teach_ things. The other kids in his class who had older siblings always complained about how they bossed them around and made them do things, and that sounded kind of sucky to Lyon.

So, when his little brother, Gray, was born, Lyon promised himself that he would be the best big brother ever, and he did always try to be. He made sure his parents always fed and burped him (because Lyon knew that babies couldn't feed and burp themselves, he listened whenever his parents spoke of the baby) and that he was always warm and happy. He was so interested in Gray's well being that, for the first few weeks after they'd brought him home, his mother and father found Lyon sleeping against his crib, explaining the next morning that it was to be sure the monster's in the dark didn't come too close.

When Gray started school, Lyon made sure no one picked on him, despite his being a whole three grades ahead of him. And Lyon always, _always_ made sure Gray followed him off the bus. After all, Gray was only in kindergarten, he didn't know where their stop was. And he didn't have to, that was Lyon's job. He was the big brother, after all, and that's what big brothers did. So Lyon always made sure that the chubby kindergartener was behind him when he stepped off the bus and into their driveway. Well, almost always.

Today, as Lyon walked down the steps leading off the bus, his thoughts were caught up with what he'd planned to do over the coming break (it _was_ almost Christmas). As soon as he'd taken a few steps away from the bus, it continued down the road (although Lyon was sure the bus driver was supposed to wait until he'd gotten into his house to make sure someone was actually home). Lyon turned around, intent on asking Gray for his thoughts on that new dinosaur toy (the one that was at the top of his Christmas List), and that was when he realized he'd forgotten to look over his shoulder for the familiar dark head of hair as he exited the bus.

Lyon realized that he'd been so busy thinking that he'd forgotten to wake the younger boy, who had been quietly snoring throughout the entire ride home. Panicking, Lyon did the first thing that came to mind and ran down the street in the direction the bus had gone, even though he wasn't supposed to go out in the road, especially without looking both ways. But those thoughts were quickly pushed to the back of his mind as he continued his fruitless chasing of the school bus.

Once he'd run out of breath, he sat down on the side of the rode for a moment, not a bus in sight. After a few minutes of sulking, he realized he needed to tell his parents. Hopefully they would know what to do.

As he made his way back to his driveway, which really wasn't all that far behind him, his mind began to fill with every possible scenario that resulted from not getting off the bus. He didn't actually know what happened to kids when they missed their stop, he didn't even know where the buses went (though he assumed it was the school), so all he had to go off of were the things he heard from other students.

Mariah Heart from his class said she had a cousin who got left on a bus during a field trip. When she came back, she wasn't really the same, and she had a mysterious scar just below her hairline. Sydney Collar from class 3b said she used to have a twin brother, before he forgot to get off the bus at their house. And Conner Schultz, who was in fourth grade, said that his bus had broken down once, when he was the only one left on it, and that the bus driver had tried to attack him, but he'd single-handedly fought him off and ran home without a scratch.

Even though Connor and Mariah were known for telling stories and Sydney just said things because they made her seem interesting, Lyon still pictured hostile bus drivers and disappearing brothers and heads being cut open for brains to be tampered with. By the time he'd burst through the front door of his house, he was nearly hysteric.

"Mom! Dad! I-I left Gray on the bus!" he shouted to his parents, who sat at the kitchen table and seemed startled by his sudden appearance.

He then went on to explain how Gray had fallen asleep next to the window, and that Lyon had forgotten to wake him before getting up, because he was too busy thinking thoughts that seemed to have been forgotten ages ago. And when he was done explaining everything, he heard the familiar sound of a bus coming to a stop.

Lyon whipped around, ripped the door open, and nearly bolted down the driveway, half expecting a man wearing a taunting grin and laughing maniacally as he pulled away from their house, and Gray's face looking frightfully through the window. However, what he did see was not nearly as cynical. What he did see was a plain, yellow bus as its doors swung open, allowing a sobbing Gray to stumble down its steps and to his parents.

Once Gray was a safe distance from the vehicle, the doors swung closed and drove off. Lyon examined his younger brother as he sobbed to his parents about how scary the experience was and how he didn't ever want to go on a bus again. There were no conspicuous scars marking his head, and Lyon thought he _seemed_ pretty normal, and that was enough to convince him that everything was okay. His worry dissipated, and as he looked at Gray, tears streaming down his face, his guilt came back tenfold.

Their mom and dad led Gray into the house, Lyon right behind them, and sat the little boy on the couch as he tried to compose himself. Their mother went to get Gray something to drink, and their father went to get him a blanket, because it was freezing, and a blanket never hurt.

"Sorry I left you on the bus," Lyon apologized from where he sat on the opposite end of the couch.

"I-it's o-oka-ay. 'S not your fa-ult," Gray said, his crying being to cease but his voice still trembling.

"Yeah it is," Lyon insisted. "I'm the big brother, so I'm s'posed to make sure you get off the bus and stuff. I'm the worst big brother ever."

And he really was, not only had he left Gray on the bus, but his brother was now crying because of it. Big brothers weren't supposed to make little brothers cry.

Gray huffed and puffed out his cheeks, crawling across the cushions, plonking himself down in the older boy's lap, and making himself comfortable, tears all but forgotten.

"Don't be a dummy," Gray said poutingly. "You're the best big brother ever, so you're allowed to mess up sometimes." And though Lyon couldn't see the six-year-old's face, he knew he wore the stern expression he always made when scolding someone.

Then he turned his head so that he could look Lyon in the eye before asking, "Okay?"

Lyon nodded, holding back a smile and a most likely loud bout of laughter. "Okay."

 **Well, I hope you all enjoyed. See you next Saturday (which is Christmas Eve, so be prepared for a Christmas oneshot)!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey, guys, I'm back, and as promised, I have graced you with a Christmas oneshot. If you don't celebrate Christmas, well, hopefully you can still enjoy this oneshot, anyway. Also, I'm not entirely sure if they celebrate Christmas in the Fairy Tail universe, and maybe they might even have another name for it (because I know shows do like to do that), but either way, it does now.**

 **IMPORTANT: So, there isn't really any spoilers here, just mentions of a future battle, and it could possibly lead you to infer other things. I don't think you really have to worry about it, but I'll warn you just in case.**

 **Okay, now on with the story!**

 **Disclaimer: If you think that any of these characters are mine, then I must ask you to please not assume things.**

 **The Christmases Remembered And the Ones Yet to Come:**

 **Gray – 18**  
 **Lyon – 19**

Gray still remembers his first Christmas with Ur and Lyon. His first Christmas without his parents.

He remembers waking up that morning and not ever wanting to move again, because his parents were gone, and Christmas didn't have the right to exist if they weren't there to celebrate it with him. But he dragged himself out of bed anyway and sat at the table with Lyon while Ur made breakfast, as was his normal routine after having lived with them for the better part of a year.

They got a tree that year, and although that day was one of the worse days for him in terms of remembering the past, Gray still put up with it, because Lyon was excited to get gifts, and he knew Ur was excited, too, even though it was only noticeable through the smile she gave as he and Lyon began ravaging through the presents in search of their own.

And gradually, his pretend excitement turned real, as he opened the presents he'd gotten. He can't remember what they were now, but he knows he loved them, and when he went to bed that night, he remembers the smile plastered on his face, that it was not the least bit forced. And then he remembers how he felt as though he had no right to be happy when his parents were gone. What kind of son did that make him? And then he remembers how he cried and cried until he fell asleep.

Gray also remembers the following year, in which he still remembered his parents, thought about them every second of the day, but their memory wasn't so painful to recall. He remembers being so excited for Christmas that, on its eve, he didn't fall asleep until the sun was just peeking up on the horizon, its light shining on the blankets upon blankets of snow, and it looked nothing short of a wonderland.

He doesn't remember what any of his gifts were that year either, just Lyon creeping over to his side of their room on Christmas morning and somehow still managing to pounce on him despite his being propped up against the window sill. He also recalls dragging Lyon over to the couch and forcing him to look out the window behind it at the puffy flakes falling from the sky. They were mesmerized by it, even though snow fell more often than not where they lived.

The third Christmas he spent with who he by then considered his family, he remembers not wanting to wake up. Not because he dreaded the holiday or hadn't slept a wink (which he hadn't, but that was not the reason), but because Lyon was then jumping all over him, shouting the extremely obvious fact that it was Christmas, and Gray thought that if he were to wake up, he might actually kill the white-haired boy. And homicide was never good on Christmas. Eventually, however, Ur stopped Lyon's existence from being infuriating (not by killing him but by scolding him), and Gray finally got out of bed.

When he and Lyon had tore open every present beneath the tree, Lyon looked at Ur expectantly. Gray watched as she walked off, coming back with yet another gift. He was confused, at first, when she held it out to him. He opened it carefully, because that one seemed more important then all the rest had, and though he couldn't remember any of the other Christmas gifts from those three years, he definitely remembers that one. Inside the box, he found two little ice sculptures.

The first was a little Christmas tree, and Gray knew that Ur had made it, just as he knew that Lyon had made the other. He thinks now that Lyon was only making an ice sculpture because Ur was, and because he was not very good, it kind of looked more like a blob than anything. But despite that, Gray still loved them both, and thanked Ur and Lyon sincerely.

The rest of the day was spent drinking hot chocolate and playing with new gifts, and the night spent with both boys propped up on opposite ends of the couch, sleeping with cups dangling precariously over hardwood floors or huddle closely to chests like stuffed animals.

When Gray woke up the next morning, he discovered that Lyon's sculpture, because his magic wasn't quite perfected, had melted. And though it hadn't really been much of anything, Gray still shed a few tears (though he would never tell that to Lyon).

There was no fourth Christmas.

And as he walks up the steps to the guild hall, Gray wonders if there ever will be. Of course, they will never be able to celebrate another holiday with Ur, but Gray wonders if, after the Galuna Island and Oracíon Seis incidents, they might at least be friends again. Though he wishes they might be more like brothers, as they were back then.

As soon as he walks into the main room of the guild, someone calls his name, "Gray!"

It's Mirajane. She smiles at him and waves for him to come over to the bar.

"Someone dropped off a package for you," she states as he makes his way over to her.

He gives her a confused look, but she seems not to notice as she pulls something out from under the counter. She hands him a box wrapped in green and red paper, marking it as a Christmas gift. Now Gray's even more confused, because certainly anyone who would send him a gift would be in the guild, but that doesn't make any sense, because why would someone from the guild drop off his gift _at the guild_. He's sure they'd be much more likely to give it to him in person.

Gray gives Mira a small nod of thanks, taking the gift over to a table and sitting down. He unwraps it carefully, because you can never be too careful when you're in a guild like Fairy Tail, and when he sees what's inside, he's still greatly perplexed. It's a small, glass reindeer (he thinks, though he is not entirely sure of their difference from regular deer). Upon closer inspection, however, he discerns that the animal is not, in fact, made of glass, but instead it is made of ice.

Gray's not entirely sure how he didn't realize this in the first place, seeing as ice is his magical ability, but he decides to cut himself a break, because he still isn't entirely sure of what's going on anyway. There is a small note tucked away inside the box, and Gray digs it out.

 _Remember that Christmas, when I tried to make that sculpture like Ur did? Well, this is what it was supposed to be. Don't think I didn't see you crying when it melted._

Gray looks from the note to the reindeer and back to the note before he busts out laughing. All this time, he'd thought it was supposed to be a seal. His laughter dies rather quickly, as it seems the entire rest of the guild is starting to stare, and he tucks the note back away, closing the box back up. Later that night, he places the gift beside the one he'd gotten from Ur all those years ago, and though he knows there will not be a fourth Christmas this year, he doesn't believe the same can be said for the next.

 **Alright, Christmas special down. Now, really quick, I'd just like to ask you guys if it'd be cool with you for me to take a break from this for a while. Don't worry, I don't mean a while as in three years or something, nothing more than a month. I just want to get a few of these stock piled up without having to feel pressured into writing, because I want to write things I'm proud of and actually enjoy writing, which I can't do if I feel like I _have_ to write them. I'm not losing interest or anything, trust me, I still have tons of ideas and inspiration. I just want to make them good and not crap that is rushed. **

**So anyway, I hope you guys understand, and thank you to everyone who reads this story or gives some type of feedback, I appreciate all of you and I hope you have a wonderful holiday, if you celebrate. And if you don't, well, I hope you have a lovely day anyway. Bye!**


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